Bill would give Attorney General and Inspector General seats on Pilgrim advisory council

Tuesday

Jan 23, 2018 at 5:13 PMJan 23, 2018 at 5:24 PM

By Andy MetzgerSTATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

Lawmakers and a group of radiation safety activists from southeastern Massachusetts want to increase the ranks of an advisory panel designed to respond to the impending shutdown of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.

Located on the the Plymouth shoreline, the nuclear plant plans to close in May 2019, opening a new chapter in the adversarial relationship between local activists and Entergy, the plant's owner.

The closure will poke a hole in the region's supply of emissions-free electricity and begin the process of decommissioning the plant and securing the site for long-term management of the spent fuel.

An energy diversification law signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2016 created the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel and tasked it with advising the governor, state lawmakers and state agencies about decommissioning Pilgrim.

A bill (S 2206) filed by Sen. Julian Cyr in October and heard by a legislative committee on Tuesday would add representatives from the attorney general's office, inspector general and the Barnstable County emergency planning department to that body. The bill would also direct the panel to specifically consider hazardous waste storage, environmental monitoring and other aspects of the plant closure.

Those changes would "dilute, confuse and complicate" the decommissioning discussion and "load up government on what is supposed to be a 'citizens board,'" Entergy lobbyist Tom Joyce told the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy in written testimony.

The panel is led by Kurt Schwartz, the director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, and Sean Mullin, a Plymouth resident and local businessman, according to Joyce, who said Cape Cod residents – former Sen. Dan Wolf and John Flores – are also on the 21-member commission.

Entergy said another aspect of Cyr's bill – which would enable the panel to seek outside funding – is "inappropriate." Cyr said the funding would allow the panel to hire experts and staff.

Pilgrim critics have become well versed in nuclear disasters around the globe, and in safety concerns with the Plymouth plant, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rated one notch above unacceptable.

On Tuesday, they raised the possibility of radioactive materials contaminating Cape Cod Bay and sea salt corroding fuel containers. They said the risks will remain after the reactor stops operating.

"No one can predict how long the waste fuel will stay in Plymouth. It could be hundreds of years. It could be forever," said Harwich resident David Agnew. "If Pilgrim closes in 2019, Entergy will likely be out of the picture within a decade."

Sen. Michael Barrett, a Lexington Democrat and co-chairman of the energy committee, said he had trouble discerning the anti-Pilgrim activists' top goals.

"It's bewildering to listen to testimony on this particular topic," Barrett told a panel of local activists. He said, "It's very hard to prioritize what I'm supposed to be thinking about."

Mary Lampert, director of Pilgrim Watch, said increasing membership of the advisory panel would help the body develop specific recommendations for the Legislature.

It was "useful" to hear that activists believe the Cyr bill encapsulates many of their goals, Barrett said after the hearing.